Watching another young wide receiver drop a pass in the first week of Virginia Tech's preseason practices, Aaron Moorehead suddenly had an appreciation for what his coaches had to endure early in his own college playing days.

He pulled out his cell phone and sent a text to Ron Turner, his coach at Illinois. Now that Moorehead is getting a little deeper into his coaching career, he understands what Turner had to go through seeing Moorehead drop passes as an inexperienced receiver.

"I sent him a text message saying, 'I am so sorry for my freshman and sophomore years of college,'" said Moorehead, who's in his first season as Tech's wide receivers coach after spending the previous three years as the receivers coach at Stanford.

Moorehead, 32, always has had an appreciation for his coaching mentors, which is understandable given the list of coaches he's been around over the last 14 years.

He lists his biggest influences as Clyde Christensen, who is the Indianapolis Colts' quarterbacks coach and who was the Colts' receivers coach when Moorehead played with the team from 2003-07, former Colts coach Tony Dungy and Minnesota Vikings coach Leslie Frazier.

Frazier recruited Moorehead to Illinois, when Frazier was the defensive backs coach for the Illini. Frazier was later an assistant coach with the Colts during Moorehead's time with the team.

Others on Moorehead's list include former New Mexico coach Mike Locksley, with whom Moorehead worked in '09 as a graduate assistant, San Francisco 49ers and former Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh, Indianapolis Colts and former Stanford offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton and current Stanford coach David Shaw.

"I was always the type of guy who tried to pick little things from every guy to take with me on my journey," Moorehead said. "The worst thing is try to be something you're not. I think the kids see through it. I think the other coaches see through it."

JEFF GRIMES | VIRGINIA TECH | OFFENSIVE LINE COACH

Jeff Grimes always has had a very simple recruiting philosophy, and it has paid off for him.

If he can get to see an interesting high school recruit via a "reasonable day's drive," Grimes is going to go there. His approach isn't unlike that of many other coaches, but he's stretched the concept of reasonable day's drive in gathering five offensive line commitments for Tech's 2014 recruiting class from New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

"Recruiting is the name of the game," said Grimes, who is heading into his first season as Tech's offensive line coach after spending the last four years at Auburn in the same role. "I get good players, it makes me a lot better coach.

"I'm a guy that works a whole lot better if I can really focus on one thing at a time. So, I'm a much better recruiter in the spring and in the summer than I am during the season. I'm a lot better coach if I don't have to worry about a whole of recruiting during the season. I'm not a real big multi-tasker. You have to (multi-task), to a certain extent."

In a perfect world, Grimes, 44, would be able to nail down commitments from guys he's recruiting the hardest by the beginning of the season. With his offensive line at Tech in a state of flux, featuring four positions that weren't manned with rock-solid starters three weeks from the opener against Alabama, Grimes needed to put as much attention on his on-field job in Blacksburg as possible.

"I'm really happy with what's happened this offseason in terms of the progress that we've made with recruiting," said Grimes, who also has coached offensive linemen at Boise State, Arizona State, Brigham Young and Colorado in his 20-year career. "It was a good first step towards getting the line where we need it."

TOM O'BRIEN | U.VA. | TIGHT ENDS COACH

After spending the past 16 years as the head coach at Boston College and then at North Carolina State, Tom O'Brien's biggest lessons in coaching have come from learning what not to do.

With that kind of knowledge, plus the ability to offer a keen evaluation eye honed over 38 years in the business, O'Brien would be an invaluable addition to any coaching staff. Virginia coach Mike London recognized that value in January and added O'Brien to his staff as the Cavaliers' associate head coach for offense and tight ends coach.

"I know through my 16 years of head coaching, I've made a lot of mistakes," said O'Brien, 64. "I'm trying not to let those things happen as we go forward (at U.Va.)."

In addition to helping serve as an eyes set of eyes and ears for London and new U.Va. offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild, O'Brien also has helped organize the Cavaliers' recruiting efforts.

When he got to Charlottesville, O'Brien said there didn't appear to be much of a plan in place for filling positional needs, so he made sure to set some recruiting guidelines — three scholarships available for specialists, 41 for defensive players and 41 for offensive players with position limitations.

He's also been instrumental in helping U.Va. establish its offensive identity with new coaches on hand. There's a difference in making sure you're giving players the right amount of coaching to be ensure strength in one area, and overloading players with a cumbersome plan.

"What we're trying to do is balance the fact you have to be good at something, and we want to make sure that whatever we feel is our base offense, we're good at that as we continue to add things," O'Brien said. "I think you have to continue to add some things to challenge the kids to see who's paying attention, to see who's listening. Plus, we have to do some of that to try to find out who our playmakers are, but at the same time know that you can't have too much in and not be good at anything."

Three nights before the start of preseason practices, Larry Lewis was on the phone for 45 minutes having a conversation he hoped would pay dividends for Virginia's football program.

Big sales job with a big recruit? Nope. It was a lengthy session on point-after attempt protection. Not exactly riveting stuff? Don't tell that to Lewis, who is U.Va.'s new special teams coordinator and running backs coach.

"It's an ongoing process," said Lewis regarding his information gathering process in the area of special teams. "There's always somebody calling that needs something, or I'm calling someone else within the group of guys that we know."

Lewis, 55, gets together once a year with four or five other college and NFL special teams coaches to compare notes. It used to be a group of coaches six of seven times that size, but the free flow of information didn't take place when the group was that large.

"It's probably the very best clinic situation I've ever been in," said Lewis, who was the head coach from 1999-2006 at Idaho State.

After devoting 10 of his 32 years in coaching to heading up special teams at Washington State, Colorado State, Nevada and now U.Va., Lewis brings plenty of experience to a Cavaliers' program that needs a special teams boost.

U.Va. was second-to-last in the nation out of 120 Bowl Subdivision programs last season in kickoff return yardage defense (gave up 27.5 yards per return), 111th in punt return yardage (3.87 yards per return) and 81st in punt return yardage defense (gave up 9.72 yards per return).

In his one season at Nevada, Lewis was also the running backs coach and learned the pistol formation offense from former Nevada coach Chris Ault, who is one of the originators of the offense that was all the rage last season in the NFL. With mobile quarterback David Watford starting for U.Va. this season, might there be plans to utilize the pistol?

"I'd have to kill you," Lewis said to media prying for answers. "I think everybody in the country is talking about the pistol, including (U.Va.). … It's good enough to talk about. No doubt. Does it fit what we do? Maybe. Maybe not."

MARQUES HAGANS | U.VA. | WIDE RECEIVERS COACH

When Marques Hagans returned to his Hampton High alma mater this past spring, it was as much a homecoming as always, but it was also a business trip.

He was visiting the school as a full-time member of Virginia's football coaching staff, so it was a recruiting mission. There will be other journeys to Queen Street in the future for Hagans, since the school is now part of his recruiting territory for U.Va., his college alma mater.

"It doesn't matter if I'm in a school, or somebody else is in a school, we're all on the same page in trying to get players to come to U.Va.," said Hagans, who is entering his first season as a full-time coach, working as the Cavaliers' wide receivers coach after spending two seasons as a U.Va. graduate assistant. "I think it's just a personal appreciation for myself to be able to go back and recruit my old high school."

In addition to Hampton High, Hagans is responsible for recruiting the Williamsburg and New Kent areas, Connecticut, New York, South Carolina and parts of North Carolina.

At 30 years old, Hagans isn't far removed from his own playing days. He's No. 7 all-time in passing yards at U.Va. with 4,877 yards. He went on in 2006 to play wide receiver in the NFL for four seasons with the St. Louis Rams, Kansas City Chiefs and Washington Redskins.

This season, Hagans will get to watch David Watford, his cousin and fellow Hampton High alum, follow in his footsteps as U.Va.'s starting quarterback. Hagans doesn't hesitate to give Watford the upper hand when it comes to having the most pure quarterback skills in the family.

"I think he has a better skill set as a quarterback than I had," Hagans said. "I think he has the potential to really be something special (at U.Va.)."